Some residents of the Feru community in Ogun State have accused policemen of aiding land grabbers in the area in their illegal activities.
The residents accused the policemen attached to the Itele Police Division of preventing them from accessing their property in the community.
According to the residents, the suspected land grabbers allegedly laid claim to some areas of land in the community through the help of the policemen and subsequently sold the land to a church.
The spokesman for the community, Agboola Oluwadamilare, alleged that the hoodlums dug a pit on the major road leading to the community to prevent vehicles from accessing the village.
He stated, “On January 20, 2021, hoodlums and land grabbers dug a pit on the road linking Feru community to Lafenwa, Itele and some parts of Lagos.
“For the past few years, our community has been under incessant invasion and attacks from hoodlums and land grabbers. These people emerged out of the blues without any conscience to lay claim to about 166 acres of land in Feru village, which belong to the families of Onigbeyin and Odunfa.
“We later discovered that the 166 acres were dubiously sold by the land grabbers to a church for a paltry sum of N74,700,000 and all documents regarding the transaction were not only fake, but fraudulently forged to execute their sinister motive.”
He added, “After the destruction of our village road in January, a team of at least 30 policemen from the Itele Police Division was stationed permanently at each end of the road to deprive residents its usage, and also to halt mining activities of a laterite mining firm, Ibuoye Nigeria Limited, till this moment.
“We want the Ogun State Government to come to our aid and rescue us from these hoodlums terrorising us.”
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, denied the claim of the residents, adding that policemen were in the community to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
“Is it possible for the police to be aiding the activities of land grabbers when we have anti-land grabbing law that the police are enforcing? If they see any policeman there, they are only there to maintain the peace. It is very wrong for anyone to say the police are aiding land grabbers,” Oyeyemi stated.
Source: Punch
